Ballet Guild
{{Short description|English ballet company (1941-1945)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
The Ballet Guild was an English ballet company, active from 1941 until 1946. It is closely associated with the dancer-choreographer partnership of Molly Lake (1900–1986) and Travis Kemp (1914–1995).Naomi Benari. Vagabonds and strolling dancers : the lives and times of Molly Lake and Travis Kemp, Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (1990)
Formation
The Ballet Guild was formed on 10 May 1941 by Deryck Lynham,Deryck Lynham. Ballet Then and Now: a History of the Ballet in Europe (1947) the barrister Christmas Humphreys (who acted as chairman)Christmas Humphries. [https://books.google.com/books?id=C92TBwAAQBAJ&dq=Deryck+Lynham&pg=PA113 Both Sides of the Circle] (1978) London: Allen & Unwin {{ISBN|0-049-2102-38}}, pp. 113-115 and others, and was based in St John's Wood, London. The company was formed to encourage the development of ballet as an art, and to provide opportunities for young dancers and creative artists.
Role
The Guild set up a ballet school, assembled a library of resources, and organised lectures, demonstrations and exhibitions.Janet Rowson Davis. 'Ballet on British Television, 1946-1947: Starting Again', in Dance Chronicle, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1990), pp. 103-153 The company was short-lived, and had disbanded by 1946. At that time there were a dozen or more small ballet groups touring the UK and vying for audiences, including the Arts Theatre Ballet, the London Ballet and the International Ballet.Karen Eliot. Albion's Dance: British Ballet During the Second World War (2016), pp. 30-33
Seasons and productions
The Guild put on short experimental seasons and toured under ENSA using ad-hoc companies assembled by the dancers and choreographers Molly Lake[https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100048209 'Molly Lake', Oxford Reference] and her husband Travis Kemp.[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-travis-kemp-1596215.html Travis Kemp obituary], in The Independent, 13 August 1995 Lake and Kemp had both previously been in the Pavlova and Markova-Dolin companies, and Lake was an exponent of the Cecchetti method. A quintet, later an orchestra, was formed by Leighton Lucas to provide the music. Most of the London performances took place at the Rudolf Steiner Hall near Baker Street, or the Garrick Theatre in Charing Cross Road.
One of the company's earliest productions was the new ballet Sawdust, with music by Mary Lucas, which was performed in London and Wolverhampton in May 1941 under the direction of Leighton Lucas.Cohen, Aaron I. (ed.): International Encyclopedia of Women Composers (1981), Bowker. ISBN 9780835212885 Other ballets produced under the Guild included Victorian Bouquet (choreographed by Lake, music by Rossini), Nymphenburg Gardens (Lake, Mozart),'[https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/the-ballet-guild-founded-by-christmas-humphreys-and-based-news-photo/3383033 The Work Of The Ballet Guild]', in Picture Post No 1509, 28 August 1943 and The Last Curtain (Lake, Weber), all three of which were televised just after the war by the Embassy Ballet (later the Continental Ballet), an offshoot of the Ballet Guild.[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/874c219f699c47f1a88ef126bcfd357c 'Victorian Bouquet' and 'Nymphenburg Gardens'], Radio Times Issue 1189, 14 July 1946, p. 27'[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/b580729bfb7848758611720a563c1c55 The Last Curtain]', Radio Times, Issue 1220, 16 February 1947, p. 35
Legacy
The Guild's library was used as the foundation for the Archives of the Dance, initially established under the chairmanship of Cyril Beaumont in 1946.David Wiles, Christine Dymkowski (ed.): [https://books.google.com/books?id=OqN7Umqcy9MC&q=%22London%25&pg=PA271 The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History] (2013) p. 271 This later became the dance holdings of the Theatre Museum, London, and is now at the Victoria & Albert Museum.Sarah C. Woodcock. '[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1290790 Dance Research]': The Journal of the Society for Dance Research. Vol. 8, No. 1 (Spring, 1990), pp. 62-77
In 1954, Molly Lake and Travis Kemp took up an appointment to teach and direct the Turkish National Ballet School (which the Turkish Government had asked Ninette de Valois to establish), where they worked for the next two decades.